1996
23-4.1.96
Bike Ride in Spain
I'm on a bike ride in Spain. There's a city down below. I'm up in the mountains. Beautiful scenery. I start to go down hill then the bike lane goes over a ravine separate from the road. It's only just wide enough for a bike and I'm so scared I wake up (but it's not a nightmare - I'm only scared in the dream).
Back to sleep again : I'm being chased by a big monster of a bloke through something like a deserted spaceship (?) then I realise I'm invisible. I must have been fairly cheeky, though, because next thing I know he's got me trapped in one of his arms and he's putting a tie on. Just when he realises there's something there (me still being invisible) I wake up again.
6-7.2.96
A Cake for Me.
I'm giving a class in what looks like a small hut. I'm just about to make a point or a joke but the students' attention is wandering. The lights go out. It turns out they were more interested in a cake they'd been preparing, which they present me with. Lots of candles on it. I feel happy.
15-16.2.96
Clive Walker.
I'm chatting with Clive Walker and he's reminiscing about his 100% goalscoring record against York City. (The following night an impotence dream where I play crap at futbol sala. Then on the night of 8-9th May I dream an incredible backheeled cross for Phil to score with a bullet header. A bit similar to the one I really did give to Jason for him to score in the Christmas tournament a year later).
2-3.6.96
The Cashpoint
Three of us go to play football somewhere in a different town. I remember looking out of the window of the house where we're staying over a garden, a river with a waterwheel etc. and having a rant about something with our host. We go to play the game and on the way back we go to a cashpoint machine. Next to it is a shop window full of nice stuff. We're looking at it enviously and a bloke puts his hand through the window and takes a TV. The bottom half of the glass, it turns out, had been cut away, so we help ourselves to stuff and take it back to the house where we get it all out on the lawn to look at it. I got a sleeping bag, some boots and other stuff.
18-19.4.96
The Lost Baby.
Among a group of people, I'm carrying my violin and American Tony is carrying his baby. We go for a beer and realise that the baby's missing. We send out several search parties. I get on my bike and cycle out then I sit under a hedge by a road and drink a Guinness. Then I go to some big open air cinema on a hill with someone and end up looking for Carol (of La Gruta) in a bar that she's just left. Matt Screech and Art from Oxford turn up and say the baby's been found but they've left the rest of them because of some argument. Two of them, according to Matt, have to live together in a cupboard. Anyway, we have a drink and a chat about English comedy programmes.
Summer 96
Dusty Bar.
I go down a street to get my violin and amp from a bar where I've left them (It's in a Spanish town during fiestas). The owner says the cops have taken them and doesn't seem at all bothered. He's a fat scruffy bloke and, as I was coming down the street, I saw him talking in a friendly way to a couple of coppers. I am extremely miffed. The bar is like a bare room with dusty wooden floorboards and bar.
Summer 96
Not Busted by the Police.
Me and (a) friend(s) are stopped by the police and have to sit in their car. We're smoking a J so obviously we assume we've been nicked. All this happens on Bradshaw brow. The copper and his blonde girlfriend have a smoke then leave us alone. We wake up and go into town. The blonde has some exhibition on in a shop window in the High Street and something is not in place so we reach in (through a hole in the glass window?) and rearrange it properly. She explains that her copper friend had some dope and wanted to know how to skin up properly.
Summer 96.
Late For Work.
I'm late for work, dashing round frantically gathering things up and rushing out. When I go out into the road I see a woman in the centre aisle with curly blonde hair and dark glasses. When she smiles I see (like in Polanski's 'The Tenant' when we see Simone Schule's toothless smile.) a twisted tooth and realise that it's Merche. I'm SO glad to see her. We go somewhere together and catch up on all the news.
1-2.11.96
Clifftop Football.
I'm on a clifftop next to a chickenwire fence with a football which two people on the other side of the fence want, so I try to chip it over but it hits the top of the fence, comes down on my side and goes down the cliff where a cat (or dog?) tries to show me where it is by yowling.
5-6.11.96
In a Sex Shop with Jordi.
I go into a shop with Jordi. He picks out a video which turns out to be hard porn. I don't know whether I like the idea or not. I leave my old tatty blue-grey rucksack (empty) on the floor as he calls me over to look at the rubber doll he's buying. We leave, then I remember I've left my rucksack and have to go back in to look for it but it isn't there any more.
Leftover Images.
I'm painting a big picture of Vialli on the Stamford Bridge turf under the floodlights. It's very good, done in lovely night blues and yellows (and I don't even like Vialli particularly).
In a pub in Bradshaw I'm with a girl with long fair hair. There are some slight arguments (not between me and her) but generally everyone's having a good time.
18-19.11.96
Fair-haired Artist.
A beautiful fair-haired girl is eplaining her art to me. (She looks like Azucena from Tomás' company).
We are at her exhibition and she's telling me the meaning of her three very small modern sculptures on a wide shelf.
19-20.11.96
Home For My Violin.
I'm at the cinema in Spain with a Spanish girl. In the front row I notice another girl speaking English. We come out and I'm with my girlfriend in a passage that leads to the street. She demands a kiss which I give her after pretending to refuse. Then I realise I have to go home for my violin so I get a bus to my barrio and get off, almost going to the bus stop again without getting my violin (i.e. forgetting it). So I change direction to go back to my flat across strange rutted roads and have to run into some thistles to avoid a car that nearly knocks me over.
A gypsy with a horse and cart passes by.